Acres of Ability

 One fine December 6, Saint Nicholas went on his annual trek, providing tidbits of good cheer to the down-trodden.  Whistling merrily as he worked, he thought to himself, “Everyone loves my ministry.  Surprises and sweets and all good things I bring!” He whistled his way around the world, filling shoes set carefully by the door of each home with gold-foiled chocolate coins.  Just to be fair, his bag of treats included dairy-free, gluten-free, peanut-free, and sugar-free sweets.  Good old St. Nick, he kept his eye on modern nutritional issues:  He had covered it all. Or so he thought, ‘til he reached the home of a teenage girl whose shoes remained firmly on her feet, even as she slept. She awoke, howling in anger, as he untied her shoes.  “I want to fill them with candy,” he explained.  Her stubborn stare nearly deterred his benevolence.  “I have truly heavenly candy,” he extolled.  “I’ll give you the ones with peanut butte...

Yesterday was my Kyra’s birthday.  Today is the 1 st day of the Advent season.  I love that Kyra’s birthday coincides with the advent of Advent, the season of anticipation and hope.  God’s eloquence in action. Today, Kyra and I placed the first ornament on our Advent calendar: a cloud slicing the moon in two.  What better way to start out the season of hope? Without a dark cloud looming, threatening our only light, what do you need hope for? Our family fervently hopes that our dark cloud will dissipate with the miraculous healing of Kyra’s disabilities, and life will become as we expected it to be when Kyra was born, at 12:32pm, November 30, 1995. But a small part of me wonders, do we really want that life? Daily, I pray for, beg for, and anxiously await a quick and miraculous healing of Kyra’s disabilities.  Yet, while I anticipate that healing, I’m dubious of its value.  Just as she is, Kyra is a powerful force, welcoming everyone ...

This week, we celebrated All Souls Day and All Saints Day.  I hope that wherever you are, the changing seasons encouraged the trees around you to expose their own soul color.  For most of the year, a tree’s true leaf color is hidden behind hard-working chlorophyll as the tree diligently converts carbon dioxide and sunshine into the life-sustaining oxygen we tend to take for granted. Then, for a few short weeks, or days, or even hours, the tree stops working long enough to show its true color.  If you’re not paying attention, you’ll miss it. I believe the beauty of autumn is made even more exquisite by the urgency that accompanies it.  As your childish senses are thrilled by the crisp, crackly, flame-colored leaves, your grown-up wisdom reminds you that frosty wind and shortened daylight hours will soon turn the crispy flames to a dull, limp brown. We recently experienced the height of Iowa in autumn during a 2-hour train ride through my favorite scenic landsc...

A year or so ago, a friend told us a story about how he was enjoying an evening in his orchard with his 4-year-old grandson.  As night began to fall, he invited the young boy to wish upon the first star he saw.  So, that 4-year-old, offering his first star-guided wish, said, "I wish I knew what Kyra was saying." The fact that the boy spent his wish on someone else is exceptional.  The fact that he knew, at 4 years of age, that Kyra's inability to speak does not mean she has nothing to say is extraordinary.  The fact that he understood that Kyra is indeed communicating, but we "normal" folks aren't smart enough to understand it, is prophetic. With the help of an iPad and a communication app, my daughter Kyra is beginning to "speak" in a manner that more people are able to understand.  As more and more people learn about her success, more and more parents and caregivers ask me how she does it.  "What app does she use?"  "Why did ...

We love chicken salad! In fact, Kyra and I make fresh, yummy chicken salad nearly every day… but ours is a little different than the recipe in your favorite cookbook. In fact, we should probably call our concoction “Salade Pour Des Poulets” instead, since it’s not about us eating chickens, but rather about our chickens eating salad. For years, we have taken in hens that a neighboring egg farmer has classified as “past their prime” (i.e. headed for slaughter).  While these feisty hens don’t lay as regularly or vigorously as their youthful counterparts, it is enough to supply us, our neighbors, our friends, and our extended family with plenty of bright, fresh, free-range eggs. And, Kyra and I have found that supplementing our hens’ diet with our special Chicken Salad improves the health of the chicken as well as the taste of the egg.  So, what is this Chicken Salad recipe?  In a word (or rather two) “veggie scraps". We prepare lots and lots of fresh veggies for our...

This week, Kyra and I attended our first cross-country meet to watch my 7th grade niece, Mali, run (and run, and run, and run).  We had a bit of a cross-country workout ourselves getting to the course, pushing Kyra’s wheelchair down the soggy ISU dairy barn driveway (Yes! We finally had enough rain to make mud!), dodging traffic to cross Mortensen Drive, popping wheelies over street curbs, and jarring our way across the course and up a hill to the finish line. About 20 minutes later, we clapped and cheered for nearly 250 young ladies running, jogging, walking, and stumbling over that finish line. Then we made the return trip, trudging across the wheelchair-jarring course, over the street curbs, through the mud, and finally, slogging our way down the gravel driveway to our van. As I consider the challenges we all face every day, I realize it’s not the difficulty of the course that’s important: It’s being there for the whole race. Because Kyra and I made the effort to be ...

How was your August?  August didn’t go, or for that matter, grow, so well for us.  This summer’s heat and drought seemed to dry up my energy as well as my garden.  The leaves on crops and trees alike are either brown and crispy, or dull and drooping with dust.   And my Kyra quit smiling. When someone is non-verbal and cannot write or sign or point or use other conventional communication methods, body language and facial expressions become your only true glimpse into their thoughts, hopes, fears, hurts, and joys. So, when my Kyra doesn't smile, it's a big deal around here. Come to find out, her lack of expression and frequent coughing episodes, which I attributed to exposure to new allergens during a several-state road trip, were caused instead by pneumonia.  And when we returned from our adventure, we discovered that our dog Anya was not lethargic due to the record-breaking heat, but Lyme disease. With her antibiotic treatments completed, and Anya's an...

This summer’s record-breaking heat and drought have taken a toll on our chickens, our pond, and our garden. I have given up watering my hanging flower baskets, reserving water instead for the herbs, the tomatoes and our outdoor animals.  Several times a day, our dog, Anya, appears at the door a scummy mess after taking a disappointing “swim” in our evaporating pond. Our heat-stressed chickens have nearly stopped laying eggs. When it’s this hot outside, I can’t bring myself to heat up the inside of the house with my crock pot or oven. So how can I prepare a balanced meal for my family? How about a favorite summer-time staple: bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches! Add some fresh blueberries topped with plain yogurt, honey, and cinnamon for dessert, and you have a cool, refreshing, and satisfying meal for a scorching summer day. Better yet, the BLT Salad recipe below blends well for feeding through a g-tube so your entire family can enjoy this summery meal together. ...

My garden has entered into its annual summer squash surplus.  While my spinach and lettuce  have bolted and my cucumbers have wilted in the heat and drought, my garden is overrun with  sunny yellow summer squash. Last April, those tiny squash plants didn’t look like much.  They certainly didn’t look capable of  producing a continuous supply of full-sized fruits nearly overnight! Now, at the height of the  season, I find us eating a rather one-dimensional diet: Squash.  We eat squash in salads, squash  in stews, and squash in smoothies.  I fry, bake, and saute squash.  I substitute squash for pasta,  and hide squash in muffins and cookies.  I try to pass squash off to unsuspecting neighbors and  acquaintances, and offer squash as a treat to our chickens. By the middle of July, I’m about  squashed out.  Thinking about the summer squash surplus got me to thinking about how many American diets,  and e...

Our yellow Laborador Retriever, Anastasia Ophelia Maxine (Anya), is 5 years old today.  An Almost-Independence-Day dog, she wears pride and honor quite well.  However, her high-bred self-importance dissolves around children, especially children in distress. Among all of her disabilities, my daughter Kyra’s inability to speak is often the most distressing.  For the past 16 years, we have tried countless communication methods and devices.  Because of Kyra’s lack of fine motor skills, she cannot use sign language.  Her inability to grasp small objects prevents her from using a picture-exchange system, or turning the pages of a communication book. Her inaccurate arm and finger movements make typing and pointing ineffective.  Her head and neck instability make eye gaze difficult to interpret.  Her impatience and poor motor planning make switch-scanning a frustrating chore. But none of that matters to Anya.  She understands Kyra’s body langua...

Honey is a cat, one of our (currently 11) barn cats. Life on our acreage has taught us a lot about cats. Cats are fiercely loyal to feline family members. Cats develop complex social networks, and genuinely feel superior to dogs. Cats can be born with disabilities, just like children. Over the past 16 years, we have had a deaf cat, a mute cat,and a male calico cat.  We had a cat with seasonal allergies so severe that she would shed ALL of her fur each spring.  And we have Honey. Honey was born last summer with severe neurological deficits. Her third eyelids cannot retract, so she is functionally blind. Her claws also cannot retract, so she cannot climb. Her jaw is underdeveloped, so she has difficulty eating. At 10 months old,she weighs less than three pounds, and her collar wraps around her tiny neck twice. Her vestibular issues prevent her from cuddling.  I have never heard her meow. But you should see her in person. Like many people with severe disabilities, ...

When you take the time to cook for your family, you want your efforts to be rewarded with a fresh, tasty, and healthy meal.  An easy way to brighten up any dish is to snip an herb or two into the skillet. Herbs added to your meal add up to more than a great-smelling kitchen and great-tasting food:  Great nutrition also bursts from every leaf.  Common herbs such as basil , oregano , and thyme contain a bunch of vitamins (such as A, C, E, K, and B-Complex), minerals (such as potassium, manganese, and iron), antioxidants, essential oils, and fiber.  And they add practically no calories. We grow basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary, mint, and lemon balm in big pots on our back deck. Besides providing a cool, aromatic playground for our cats, they are just an arm’s reach from our kitchen door.  Snip! Snip! Toss a few basil and oregano leaves into the salad.  Snip!  Snip!  Rub rosemary and thyme onto a roast.  Snip! Snip!  Brew refreshin...

Each spring, a hummingbird trio returns to our yard.  At the first sighting of these tube-fed buddies, Kyra and I are quick to clean up our feeder and whip up a batch of hummingbird food.  Then we sit on the deck.  And wait. If we’re still enough, and patient enough, the hummingbirds will greet us with a quick fly-by.  First we hear a warm buzzing.  Then, if we’re lucky, we catch sight of a shimmer as the tiny birds dart around us and toward the feeder. As I watch a hummingbird’s tube-like beak slurping nectar, it occurs to me that the general attitude toward feeding hummingbirds is remarkably similar to the general attitude toward feeding through a g-tube.  During the spring and summer, grocery and garden stores stock special “Hummingbird Nectar” in ready-to-feed bottles or instant-mix packets.  Seriously?  Do they really expect me to purchase a tiny packet of sugar for twice the price of an entire bag of sugar?  We know from ex...

 Searching for strawberries in the spring is a garden adventure I love to share with my daughter Kyra.  From her wheelchair seat high above the ground, she examines the berry patch, kicking her feet at every bright spot she sees.  Sometimes it’s a ripe strawberry.  Sometimes a bug.  Sometimes a dead leaf.  It’s a new adventure every day.  Kyra’s job during berry-hunting is holding the produce bowl while I pick.  Now, this is no small feat, with her arms in constant motion, her fingers reaching for the warm, bright berries I toss into the bowl, and a cat constantly repositioning himself on her lap. It’s great fun to hunt for these tasty treasures.  But, after discovering the nutritional benefits of the strawberry, you might enjoy your hunt even more.  According to webmd.com, strawberries are “… among the top 20 fruits in antioxidant capacity and are a good source of manganese and potassium. Just one serving -- about eight strawberri...

Sprouted radishes! Yum! About 2 weeks ago, my daughter Kyra and I planted the “greens space” in our garden.  We used baling twine and bamboo kabob skewers to mark off the space in our garden.  I then stretched Kyra’s stiff wrist and fingers open, filled her palm with seeds, and she sowed with abandon.  She giggled wildly as the seeds blew through the air, stuck in the cervices of her wheelchair, made her cat sneeze, and fell to the ground. Some even fell into our marked-off garden space.  About a week later, we could see a bit of green poking through the ground in great bunches. Radishes! Spinach! Swiss chard! Beets! After another week, we started to thin the bunched radish seedlings so that some of them could grow and swell and become, well, radishes. Just a little tug plucks a baby radish from its crowded location in the garden. A tiny tap knocks away chunks of soil from the slim root. A quick swish of water, if you think it’s necessary, finishes the ...

We got a phone call this morning from our neighbor who lives about half a mile to the west of us. She asked if we had seen the roof of her barn in our timber, among the trees that had twisted and splintered and crashed to the ground during this week's storm. No one was hurt in the storm, and none of the trees (or sections of barn roof) brought down a power line. Still, I was comforted by the knowledge that I had enough bottled water, seizure medicine, and g-tube meals to last us several days. Preparation = peace.

Welcome to Free Wheeling' Farm , all about life on an acreage with horses, cats, dogs, chickens, and a teenager with a wheelchair. The beautiful young ladies in the photo are sisters, my 3 daughters, 23, 21 and 16 years old. Their patience and passion for each other defies natural sibling rivalry. The youngest (the one in the middle) was born with profound cerebral palsy and a seizure disorder.  But in our family,she is not special because of her disabilities: She is special in spite of them.